Final Consumption and Sustainability – Contribution of Consumer Law

0583775 - ÚSP 2024 RIV AT eng C - Conference Paper (international conference)
Simon, Rita
Final Consumption and Sustainability – Contribution of Consumer Law.
Climate Law and Litigation : Planetary, Regional, and Societal Perspectives. Graz: Research Center for Climate Law, University of Graz, 2023, s. 123-151. ISBN 978-3-903374-27-0.
[ClimLaw: Graz 1st Annual PhD Workshop on Climate Law and Litigation. online (AT), 23.05.2022-27.05.2022]
Grant - others:AV ČR(CZ) LQ300682001
Program: Prémie Lumina quaeruntur
Institutional support: RVO:68378122
Keywords : consumption * sustainability * climate change * EU * SDG
OECD category: Law

From the legal point of view, it is important to scrutinise why legislative instruments are very rarely used for a more sustainable nudging of end-consumers and why the intertwining of environmental and consumer law to tackle climate change is still missing. It seems that European consumer law still puts more effort into the achievement of the single market, which is key to stimulating European economic growth, rather than examining the negative impact of consumerism and to reduce them. On the one hand, it should be underlined that Consumer choice is limited to the products available on the market, because most of a product´s environmental impact is determined at the design stage. On the other hand, it should be possible to enhance more sustainable consumption with well-designed legal requirements.
This paper will first clarify - after a short introduction to the concept of sustainable consumption as a binding universal call - (1) why final consumption matters and what are the limits of citizens’ capacity towards sustainable consumption (2). Second, it will analyse how European legislation tackles sustainable production and consumption, with a main focus on more sustainable contract law ensured by the pioneer Member States (3). Finally, it will identify the uncovered consumer issues that should be urgently tackled in the near future to achieve changes in consumer habits (4).
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0351776